In the past few weeks, in an attempt to see the large rafts of Snow Geese I remember from years ago, I’ve made two long trips up to the Skagit Valley and extended one of them to the Samish Flats. Except for a brief view from a highway of a flock grazing in someone’s back yard, I’ve been skunked. But on Saturday, as Mr. WordsandBirds and I birded along the Puget Sound shoreline near the Washington State Ferries dock in Edmonds, a flock of handsome wintering Black Brant Geese flew in and landed near shore, at most 30 yards from us. They got to eat, and we enjoyed half an hour of bliss watching and hearing them.
Coming in for a landing.
We retreated from shore and found a driftwood log, where we sat while they were there. When a passerby walked close to shore, too near them, the geese took flight and headed for the other side of the channel. Fortunately, they soon returned. Later, a horn blast from a ferry flushed them into the air. We thought that was the end of the show, but they returned immediately, hunger the greater pull.
The West Coast’s Black Brant subspecies differs from other geese in many ways. Unlike the ubiquitous Canada Goose, Brants are small: They’re 25 inches long, just two inches larger than a Mallard Duck. Brants breed the farthest north of all geese — ours nest in the high Arctic — and migrate some of the longest distances. Ours winter along the Pacific Coast from British Columbia down to Baja California.
You can hear their calls here; the second Black Brant call and flock calls sound most like what we heard:
www.allaboutbirds.org/...
We’d seen Black Brants (Branta bernicla nigricans) once before, last year, south of here with Jeff and Ms. JG. This time it felt like a rare visit by rarified creatures from another world (and the high Arctic is another world) — a magical interlude. Brants’ physical beauty alone is mesmerizing. An elegant white choker necklace on their short necks complements the white patterns on their wings and contrasts with their jet-black eyes. (Those eyes are difficult to make out against their matching black faces.) In flight, these geese reveal a pretty white triangle lining their tails.
“Bernicla” in their name, Branta bernicla nigricans, stands for barnacle. People once believed that young Brants hatched from barnacles that fell from trees. (How could anyone have believed such an incredible tale? Here’s an explanation. Give thanks for science while you’re reading it.)
Heading toward shore, where the good stuff is. Closer
Between 120,000 and 140,000 Pacific Black Brant migrate along the Pacific Flyway each year, from Prince Patrick and Mellville Islands in the Canadian North and as far south as Baja California in Mexico, according to the Chair of Wildlife Ecology, a collaboration between the Canadian Wildlife Service and two other groups.
“Wintering locations are usually characterized by an abundance of native intertidal plants used as forage, particularly eelgrass (Zostera marina)*; no other species of goose relies so heavily on a single plant species during the non-breeding season.” (Birds of the World)
Brants mate for life. Both parents rear their broods, and juveniles fly with parents and conspecifics in migration. The oldest recorded Black Brant, a female, was 29 years old. (Birds of the World)
Brant flocks typically don’t fly in a V formation, as do Canada Geese, but rather in a “long, undulating straight line, spread out laterally in company-front formation, or in a curving line.” — George H. Mackay, 1893 (as quoted in Arthur Cleveland Bent’s Life Histories of North American Wild Fowl: Ducks, Geese and Swans). Brants fly high when migrating, but along the coast they tend to fly low over the water.
They feed near shore most heavily at lower and falling tides, when eelgrass beds are within reach. We were just lucky to hit the tides right. When not feeding, Brant roost on mudflats, barrier islands, and sand spits near their foraging areas. (All About Birds)
Brant eating eelgrass, and looking elegant while doing it.
Brants nest on the ground in the tundra near grassy areas for feeding, but not far from water. I enjoy the writings of long-ago naturalists, as they made careful notes of observations, wrote beautifully and weren’t afraid of adding opinion. Bent again (1925) says, “The nests of this species are the most beautiful nests I have ever seen of any of the ducks and geese. They are great, soft, thick beds of pure, fluffy down, unmixed with the tundra rubbish so common in the nests of other species. The down is a rich, handsome shade of … deep brownish drab, flecked with whitish; it must make a warm and luxurious blanket to cover the eggs.” The male guards the nest. Hoare, quoted by Bent, witnessed a battle between three gulls and one male Black Brant. “The female was on the nest and did not move. The gulls kept returning to the attack and were very fierce. Usually they are cowardly. Eventually the Brant, although badly mauled, drove them away.”
Ready for takeoff.
Of their distinctive flight, Edward William Nelson (1881) observed, “The strokes of the wings are short, energetic and repeated with great rapidity carrying the bird with a velocity far greater than that attained by any other goose with which I am acquainted …. The order of flight is invariably a single rank, the birds moving side by side in a line. . . . There is barely room enough between the individuals to allow a free wing stroke.” (As quoted in The Ducks, Geese and Swans of North America, by Francis H. Kortright, 1942.)
From Birds of the World: “Since 1980, the winter distribution of the Pacific population has been steadily shifting northward, with decreases in Mexico and increases in N. California, S.W. British Columbia, and particularly in Alaska . . . . This northward shift appears related to climate warming and changes in eelgrass availability on the Pacific coast.
“The largest concentration of Black Brant is found in Baja California (ca. 50% of the population); second-largest in Alaska (ca. 20-25%); smaller groups on mainland coast of w. Mexico (10%) and in California, Washington, British Columbia, and Oregon.
The population of Black Brants declined between the 1960s and 1990s. “Since 1990, population size, as indexed by annual surveys on main wintering grounds in Puget Sound, WA, has averaged about 9,000 birds (range = 5,000-16,000).”
Black Brants’ cousins, Atlantic Brants, winter along the northeast Atlantic Coast. They have a white triangle on both sides of their necks rather than a necklace, and whiter underparts. “During winter, their strong dependence on certain food plants makes them vulnerable to occasional heavy losses from starvation, more so than most other geese.” A severe winter in 1976-77 froze them out of their traditional marshes and lagoons, starving more than half the population. Survivors adapted by moving inland to feed on grasses.
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The Brants we saw acted observant and alert while enjoying their lunch, and for the most part their close togetherness was amicable, but there were a few complaints:
“You did it!”
I did NOT!
Toward the end of our visit, a couple with a German Shepherd walked north, too close to the geese. The combination of two people and a large dog sent them airborne, and this time they flew away.
Dogs are forbidden on this beach. On our way out, we met two Animal Control officers and reported the dog. They said they’d questioned the couple, who said it was a service dog, and there was nothing they could do. I understand the law, but I wish people of all situations would walk away from the shore and give these magnificent creatures the space they need to eat their fill and live their lives, too.
Brants taking off. Note the white triangle on their tail feathers. See the pattern
* Eelgrass is a true aquatic plant and not a seaweed, which grows “submerged or partially floating in the marine environment. Eelgrass reproduces through rhizome growth and seed germination. Eelgrass grows on muddy and sandy bottoms in the shallow subtidal environment. Eelgrass beds grow rapidly in the spring and summer, then decay in the fall and winter. … During low tides, on tideflats, eelgrass beds hold moisture like a sponge, offering a safe, wet habitat for small creatures. With their extensive, intertwined root mats, eelgrass preserves the highly productive bacteria in the sediments which nourish many invertebrates by holding sediments in place and pumping oxygen below the muddy surface.” — Richardson Bay Audubon
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Here are photos from our sighting of Brants last year, south of this beach:
Black Brants gather at Edmonds Marina Beach Park, April 5, 2023.
Black Brant eating eelgrass. Yum! April 5, 2023.
See you next year.
Have you ever seen a Brant? Or is there another bird that’s special to you?
What have you observed in your part of the world? We’re having rainy weather in Seattle.
